Whatever May Be Said Of The Indolent Habits Of The Moors, They Were
Once, And Still Are, A Commercial People.
Spain, the neighbour of
Morocco, still feels the loss of the Moors.
They were the really
industrious classes settled in Spain. The merchants, the artists, the
operatives, and agriculturists unfortunately have left behind them few
inheriting their habits of perseverance. Little, indeed, can be expected
in Spain, where the maxim is adopted, that "nobility may lie dormant in
a servant, but becomes extinct in a merchant." Spain lost upwards of
three millions of intelligent and industrious Moors, a shock she will
never recover.
The bombardment of a commercial city of this country would not do the
injury which is commonly imagined. The ports are numerous though not
very good. A single house or shed on the beach of Mogador, or Tangier,
is a sufficient custom-house for the Moors. There are no great deposits
of goods on the coast, for as soon as the camels bring their loads of
exports, these are shipped, and the camels immediately return to the
interior, laden with imported goods or manufactures.
Mogador is the great commercial depot of the Atlantic coast, and
therefore "the beautiful Ishweira, the beloved town," of Muley Abd
Errahman. Its trade is principally, however, with the south, the
provinces of Sous and Wadnoun, and the Western Sahara. Mogador is also
the bona-fide port of the southern capital of Morocco. Two-thirds of the
commerce of Mogador is carried on with England, the rest is divided
among the other nations of Europe; but of this third, I should think
France has one half.
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